Six had gone quiet, her eyes fixed on the gate to the Strip as it drew closer.

'I wasn't sure I'd ever come back here.'

Walking through the outskirts of New Vegas and watching residents, drifters, and NCR troopers pass her by, she felt very alone. These weren't her people anymore — although perhaps they never had been. She looked at Vulpes, who was observing her intently. She didn't belong with him or the Legion either, but maybe she'd let herself forget that, at least for a few days.

'What if someone recognises me?'

Vulpes didn't respond immediately. His eyes lingered on her face, sensing something of the undercurrent of her feelings. He eventually broke off his gaze to look up at the Lucky 38 as it loomed over the city ahead of them.

'I wouldn't worry about that,' he said. 'Memories are short on the Strip. All anyone remembers about the Courier is that she betrayed them for the Legion.'

Six winced. He was right, of course. That's what people thought of her, and she'd never have the chance to tell them otherwise, that she'd done it for them. Betrayal was her legacy now.

She pulled a face at him. 'And what about you, with your face plastered all over the walls?'

Vulpes gazed dispassionately at one of the many NCR posters covering the crumbling buildings, his own face staring back at him.

'People see what they want to see, which is usually whatever is most convenient. It's easier to believe that I'm just a man, not an agent of Caesar,' he looked back at her, 'and that you are just a woman, not their fallen saviour.'

'Do you have to keep rubbing it in like that?'

'It's a fact you seem to have trouble accepting,' he raised an eyebrow at her, 'as if I didn't have enough reasons to doubt your motives.'

'And rightly so,' she smirked at him. 'I'm about as trustworthy as you are.'

'Indeed. We are quite the matching pair.'

His eyes flickered to her smiling mouth, and Six felt a rush of anticipation; she might have made a mess of everything else, but at least this piece of stupidity seemed to be working out. Vulpes put a hand in the small of her back as they passed through the gate to the Strip, and the touch made her stomach flip.

'I have a room at Gomorrah,' he said, guiding their footsteps in that direction.

She gave him an incredulous look. 'You have a room? At Gomorrah?'

The corner of his mouth ticked upwards. Six found herself admiring how the curve of his lips sat in between the lines of his jaw and cheekbone. God, she wanted to kiss him again.

'Mr Fox has, at any rate.'

'Why does Mr Fox — a man of such upstanding moral character — have a room at such an establishment, and not somewhere more befitting his standing?'

Vulpes rolled his eyes, but amusement glimmered in them nonetheless. 'I don't think I need to educate you on the benefits of hiding in plain sight of one's enemies, or indeed, sleeping with them.'

'I've benefited very little from sleeping with my enemies, actually.'

'Well, we'll see what we can do about that,' Vulpes said, giving her a look that she felt between her legs.

It was almost enough to distract her from the unexpectedly painful question his words posed: were they enemies? She disagreed with everything he stood for, found the Legion and the things he did in its name abhorrent, and would happily see all he cherished burnt to the ground — but were they enemies? The answer should have been simpler than it was, and Six turned away from it, unable to face what it meant.

Dragging her eyes away from his, she looked around at the garish neon landscape of the Strip. Dusk was just beginning to fall, and already there were drunks, prostitutes, and worse out on the streets. She felt disgust rise in the back of her throat just looking at them. These were the people she had ruined herself to try and save, and they had the gall to judge her for what it took to do it? She grimaced and heard Vulpes chuckle.

'Agreed.'

Perhaps she'd been spending too much time with him after all.

He didn't so much as glance at the scantily-clad women outside Gomorrah, or flinch walking past the NCR gathered around them. Six began to understand why he'd chosen Gomorrah as his base on the Strip: there were NCR troopers everywhere. Among this many off-duty soldiers, you were bound to hear something, either from their own drunken mouths or the whores they slept with. It was almost too easy.

She was almost overwhelmed when they entered the casino itself. It had been a long time since she'd been anywhere so sinful. The smell of cigarettes and spirits hit her like a physical blow, and the cacophony of music, shouting, and slot machines was almost deafening. Is this really what I'm trying to protect?

Vulpes nudged her. 'Follow me.'

He led her around the edge of the main room, opening a door that led to a flight of stairs and through a quieter, less raucous bar. Six followed in silence, her eyes fixed on his back as her heart started to pound. This was it, and her stomach twisted in anticipation. She'd thought about this more than she cared to admit, but it was hard to believe that it was actually happening. She was about to find out exactly what kind of lover he really was.

A dangerous one.

Vulpes stopped outside a room in a nondescript corridor, pulling a key from his pocket and unlocking the door. He held it open for her, and Six walked past him into a well-kept hotel suite, putting her bag down at the end of the bed and peering out of the window in an attempt to buy herself some time to slow down her racing heart. Closing the door, Vulpes spoke from behind her, as calm and measured as ever.

'I was going to propose that we get cleaned up and get some drinks at the bar.'

Six turned, surprised, to find him gazing levelly at her. He'd barely taken his eyes off her since they left the Fort, and she realised now that he meant to do this properly. He meant to do her properly. No quick hard fucks up against a wall for him — at least not yet. It was so absurd she almost laughed. She smiled instead, trying to ignore the knot of anticipation in her stomach as he began to unbuckle his armour.

She settled herself on the bed, making no attempt to pretend that she wasn't watching him get undressed. 'Aren't legionaries forbidden from drinking alcohol?'

'Exceptions are permitted, for appearances,' Vulpes told her, watching her eyes as they tracked the movement of his hands. Six bit her lip, and her gaze flickered up to his face.

'Does this mean I get to see the suit?'

'What did you think I was going to wear?'

She laughed quietly, shaking her head at some private joke. 'Good. I'm not a fan of the hat though.'

'Noted.'

He shrugged off the last few pieces of chest armour and pulled his undershirt over his head, revealing a muscled and scarred expanse of pale skin.

Six realised that she had never seen him even remotely undressed and that that was a travesty of indescribable proportions. Suddenly his gentlemanliness wasn't just absurd, but excruciating. She wanted to touch all of him right now. It must have shown on her face, because Vulpes was smirking at her.

'Patience, Courier,' he said, unbuckling the holster from his hip. 'Anything worth doing is worth doing well.'

'And am I?' she asked, 'Worth doing well?'

'I wouldn't be here if you weren't,' he murmured, watching her with cool eyes as his hands went to his belt.

God, he could be smooth when he wanted to be. He knew it too. Six wondered how often he seduced women in the name of getting information, and whether he enjoyed it. Not that she was jealous. It wasn't as if—

Her train of thought cut off abruptly as Vulpes crossed the room, standing with his back to her in the bathroom doorway. She was so distracted by the tapestry of scars on his back that she didn't even stop to think how unfair it was that he would face away from her while unbuckling his pants.

'What happened to you?'

Before she realised what she was doing, Six was standing, curiosity driving her to touch the mass of scar tissue that obscured the skin of Vulpes' back. He tensed up as she approached and she stopped, her fingers hovering an inch away as he observed her over his shoulder.

'I disobeyed orders,' he said, 'and was rightfully punished.'

Six's eyes flickered up to his, asking silent permission, and after a moment's hesitation, Vulpes nodded. She let her fingers cross the final inch between them, fingertips brushing the smooth canvas of skin. His back was cross-hatched so thickly with scars that she was able to trace a path from his shoulder to his hip without ever touching unmarked skin.

'Caesar told me about that,' she murmured, watching goose pimples spread up the back of his neck, 'and that your disobedience won the day. He didn't mention this, though.'

'I would have been crucified, were it not for his intervention. The flogging was a mercy.'

She gave him a crooked smile, flattening her palm against his back. 'Caesar's favour has a way of leaving a mark.'

Vulpes didn't say anything, but she saw his eyes go cold and quickly removed her hand, although the remonstrance she was waiting for never came.

'I won't be long,' he eventually said, closing the bathroom door behind him and leaving Six alone in the bedroom, utterly perplexed at what had just passed between them.

She was sure that he was as stupidly infatuated as she was — the way he'd kissed her on the road earlier was proof enough of that, and she bit her lip at the memory — but he always seemed moments away from being furious with her. What did you expect? she asked herself, turning away from the closed door and eyeing up the large bed in the middle of the room. You're making a huge mistake, and you both know it.

The sound of the shower starting to run masked Six's quiet, bitter laugh. Who was she kidding? The mistake was already made, had been made months ago when she'd first taken a knee in front of Caesar. Falling for the Legion's spymaster had not been part of the plan, not that the plan was going that well anyway.

Six sighed, beginning to undo the clasps of her own armour, acutely aware that Vulpes was naked just a few feet away. She thought about joining him, but decided that she would respect his unanticipated courtesy, as ludicrous as it seemed.

The notion that Vulpes Inculta, of all people, intended to court her was enough to make her laugh again. He knew perfectly well that she'd jump his bones given the slightest provocation, and seemed to feel similarly about her, if his needy groaning had been anything to go by. His insistence on seducing her properly nonetheless made her feel dangerously warm and fuzzy. She hadn't expected him to be a romantic.

When Vulpes emerged from the shower some five minutes later, the sight alone was enough to make Six's mouth water. With nothing but a towel around his waist, skin steaming, he smirked at her wanton expression.

'All yours,' he said, inclining his head as he ruffled his damp hair with a towel.

She scrutinised his face as she stood up, finding no trace of the cold judgement that had been there before. Quite the opposite, in fact. He was looking at her with something close to affectionate amusement. The shower must have mellowed him out. Standing close to him in the bathroom doorway, Six indulged herself, running a single finger over his chest.

'You are sorely testing my patience, Inculta.'

He put a hand on her waist, gently pushing her in the direction of the shower. 'I'll make it worth the wait, you have my word.'

God. Those words in Vulpes' mouth made heat trickle all the way down her spine. He looked delicious.

'You better,' she said, giving him a pointed look as she started to close the door, hanging on the edge of it and making no effort to disguise the lascivious crawl of her eyes down his naked torso.

'Go on, woman — get.' He jerked his head impatiently, but the smile that played around the edges of his mouth gave him away. 'I'll meet you in the bar.'